OF FOREST-TREES. 



181 



CHAPTER XI. 



The BLACK CHERRY". 



I RANK this amongst the forest berry-bearing trees (frequent in the cHAP. XI. 

 hedges, and growing wild in Herefordshire, and many places ; for I speak ^^-^'V^ 

 not here of our orchard Cherries, said to have been brought into Kent 

 out of Flanders by Henry VIII.) chiefly from the suffrage of that 

 industrious planter, Mr. Cook, from whose ingenuity and experience 

 (as well as out of gratitude for his frequent mentioning of me in his 

 elaborate and useful work) I acknowledge to have benefited myself; 

 though I have also given no obscure taste of this pretty tree in book ii. 

 chap. vii. 



It is raised of the stones of Black Cherries very ripe, (as they are 

 in July,) endeavouring to procure such as are full and large ; whereof 

 some, he tells us, are a little inferior to the Black Orleance, without 

 graffing, and from the very genius of the ground. These gathered, the 

 fleshy part is to be taken off" by rolling them under a plank in dry sand ; 

 and when the humidity is off (as it will be in three or four days) reserve 

 them in sand again, a little moist and housed, till the beginning 

 of February, when you may sow them in a light gravelly mould, keeping 

 them clean for two years, and thence planting them into your nurseries 

 to raise other kinds upon, or for woods, copses, and hedge-rows, and for 

 walks and avenues. In a dryish soil, mixt with loam, though the 



° The Wild Cherry-tree is titled PRUNUS (cerasvs ) umbellis subsessilibus, foliis 

 ovato-lanceolatis conduplicatis glabris. Sp. PI. 679. J- Bauhine calls it Cerasus Sylvestris, 

 fructu nigro et rubro. It belongs to the class and order Icomndria Monqgynia, having twenty 

 or more stamina, and only one style. 



This tree is very proper to plant in parks, because it grows to a large size, and makes 

 a beautiful appearance. In the spring, v/hen in full flower, it is highly ornamental. — 

 It thrives in poor land much better than most other sorts. The French often plant it for 

 avenues to their houses. They also cultivate it in their woods for hoops, for which 

 purpose they esteem it much. The stones of the Wild Cherry are generally sown for 

 raising stocks to graft, or bud the other sorts of Cherries upon, being of a quick growth, 

 and considerable duration. In Scotland this tree is called the Geen Tree. The fruit 

 is very pleasant. Many fine trees of this sort grow at Whixley, near Wetherby. 



